NOVEMBER 287 



shame of bull and bear baiting, drawing badgers, and so 

 forth, will lead us to find more delight in watching gold- 

 finches at liberty than in confining them in a cage in 

 admiring the deftness with which they weave their 

 beautiful nest than in taking advantage of their docility 

 to teach them a number of unnatural tricks. Syme, in 

 his History of British Song-birds, describes how a certain 

 Sieur Roman made a living by exhibiting trained gold- 

 finches. One of them shammed dead at the word of 

 command, and allowed itself to be lifted by tail or claw 

 without opening an eyelid; another stood on its head 

 with its claws in the air ; a third carried a pair of pails on 

 its shoulder like a milkmaid of old ; a fourth was trained 

 to fire a little cannon ; and so on. 



LXX 



To my taste, there are few things more dreary than 

 so-called ' entertainments ' consisting of the 

 performance by animals of tricks contrary to 

 or alien from their natural habits. It brings to mind 

 Dr. Johnson's sledge-hammer criticism of women preach- 

 ing. 'A woman preaching, sir, is like a dog walking 

 on its hind legs. The wonder is, not that it should be 

 ill done, but that it should be done at all.' I will make 

 an exception in the matter of fleas, which are sometimes 

 trained to draw coaches or drive in them, and to go 

 through other marvellous accomplishments, because any- 

 thing which diverts a flea from its ruling passion is so 

 much service done to suffering humanity. But performing 

 lions, dogs, cats, and such like I have never been able to 

 watch without a sense of shame. Dogs especially, a race 



